Who was...?

Who was...? is the name of a surprisingly popular series of biographies for children. Surprisingly, because adults like them as much as kids, and because the cover illustrations creep me out. They look like Famous Bobble-heads You Should Know, much like the U.S. Presidents who race around the bases at D.C. Nationals baseball games.

Example A:

  

Example B:

Example C:  Who is Jeff Kinney?

Of course Jeff Kinney, from McCook, Nebraska led the 1969 Huskers in rushing, scoring, and receiving as a sophomore. In 1971 "Kinney’s finest game as a Husker may have come against Oklahoma in the “Game of the Century”. Most people remember Johnny Rodgers electrifying 72-yard punt return, but forget that Kinney carried the Huskers offensively. Kinney ran for a season best 171 yards and four touchdowns."

Oh, not that Jeff Kinney? Apparently there's some guy who draws stick figures.

The characters in my current Ancestry.com family tree project are showing up in my dreams with enormous bobble heads. Big heads who drowned in the Allegheny, carpenters who cut themselves at work and died of blood poisoning, a guy who married two sisters, but only one at a time.

What about the family tree bobble-head women? Their strength blows my mind. Their stories will be in a different post, as I've run out of time in my own race around the bases. 

Check out some biographies at your library! It's okay to read the kid ones, they tell you the basics and cut to the chase.

© 2013-2016 Nancy L. Ruder